The acme Manufacturing company in Los Angeles is faced with a capacity issue in its assembly section. The demand calls for 40 units a week. However, the assembly cell is not keeping up to that rate of demand. There are 6 skilled workers, and the average time for a worker to produce a unit is 8 hours. The factory works 40 hours a week.

The management can either add another skilled worker (to bring the total to 7 workers) or can bring in a piece of machinery that can pre-assemble the sub-assembly and increase the production rate to 6 hours per unit. Which option would you select and why? (Show your computation)

a. Equipment to pre-assemble sub-assembly

b. Additional skilled worker.